Free Republic

This month — March 30th — will mark 20 years since Terri Schindler Schiavo was cruelly killed, deprived of food and water for 13 days until she finally succumbed to dehydration and starvation. It was one of the most controversial bioethics issues to arise since Roe v. Wade, in what many deemed a victory for supposed “medical choice.” Now, two decades later, a pair of bioethicists is revisiting Terri’s death, and argued that while they believe killing her was the right decision, it also ended up leading to the fall of Roe v. Wade in 2022. The Hastings Center is...

Instead of shouting out questions about Monica Lewinsky, Caplan – as he is wont to do – bellowed out queries about Jeffrey Epstein and “the Lolita Express” in light of theories regarding an underage sex-trafficking ring. As you can see in the video below, Caplan's actions were not well-received. Among the responses was “Sit down and shut up.” Caplan didn’t abide by that request, and was escorted from the auditorium for disrupting the event. In the lobby outside the room, he was told he was “acting like an insane human” in front of an audience that included children. “If I...

This is the Libertarian Purity Test, which is intended to measure how libertarian you are. It isn't intended to be any sort of McCarthyite purging device -- just a form of entertainment, hopefully thought-provoking. I like it a lot better than the more famous "World's Shortest Political Quiz" because I haven't stated the questions with any intent to give an upward bias to a test-taker's score, and because it gives a clearer breakdown between hard and soft-core libertarians. Enjoy, suggest your friends try it out, and see how you compare to other test-takers... A note on meaning: The word privatized...

THE market in body tissue in the US is believed to be worth more than $500 million (£288 million) a year. (snip) Heart valves are said to fetch up to $7,000 each in the US, and skin $1,000 per square foot. A body could be worth about $150,000, according to Art Caplan, Professor of Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania. (snip) In some cases people in charge of willed-body programmes have profited illegally. In 2002 Allen Tyler, the head of the cadaver programme at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, pleaded guilty to 66 counts of illegal mutilation....